Ken Saro-wiwa: Groups seek implementation of UNEP report

A coalition of civil society organisations and the Ethnic Minority Battle for Group Freedom (EMIROAF) yesterday urged the Federal Government to implement the report of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to remedy the environmental degradation of Ogoniland.

They spoke at the 17th Memorial Lecture of the late Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was killed on November 10, 1995, by the late Gen. Sani Abacha-led military government.

The Chief Executive of the Centre for 21st Century Issues, Mrs. Titi Akosa, said the late activist died fighting for his people.

She said: “He died for this cause, to ensure that those who polluted Ogoniland through oil exploration were brought to book.

“Sixteen years after, we can see that he fought for the right cause. The water in Ogoniland cannot be drunk because it contains hydrocarbon, yet the Federal Government has not taken any step to implement the UNEP report.

“Are we going to sit down and allow the Ogoni people to die? Should we put business and profit above human life? Should we make business out of environmental degradation? We stand for equity and justice for our people. We need to speak up and ensure that the recommendations of the report are implemented.”

EMIROAF Secretary-General in Nigeria Alfred Ilenre said the late Saro-Wiwa was clear in his writings, words and actions that Nigeria’s formation had serious fundamental defects that questioned its validity as a nation state.

Illenre said: “The late Ken Saro-Wiwa was of the opinion that lumping together nationalities with different historical, biological, cultural, linguistic and ethnic background without their free and informed consent assaulted human sensibility.

“Many of the threats to Nigeria’s security since Independence in 1960 stem from the central government’s imposition of arbitrary policies on the federating regions/states.

“They include the contrived 1999 Constitution; reversal of the revenue sharing formula, which appropriated too much money to the centre, more than it has the capacity to manage; the imposition of the supervisory local government system, which displaced the efficient part-time councillorship management committee system in Southern Nigeria; the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP); the abandonment of the more effective, self-reliant and dependable Parliamentary System for the corruption-ridden Unitarian Presidential System.”